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A proposed 47-acre Makena Resort development project will have its application for an SMA permit heard by the Urban Design Review Board on Tuesday, March 1st at 10am. This project will turn more of Makena into a members-only access, gated community. There will be no affordable homes and no direct benefit to the community. It will put further burden on an already strained infrastructure throughout the Wailea-Makena-Kīhei areas.
Discovery Land Company and its partners claim that the project is small, so an Environmental Assessment is sufficient because their project will have minimal to no impact on the area or its resources.
The truth is that this project is just a small fraction of the larger plans the developers have for the larger 1800 acre holding. As such, a more comprehensive study needs to be done to identify and mitigate all impacts. A FULL Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) needs to be completed. The last EIS done for the Makena area was in 1975! Makena has changed A LOT since then.
Please sign our petition for a FULL EIS and share your mana`o (thoughts/feelings) at the next meeting on this project.

No Less Than a FULL EIS

Makena Resort has plans for hundreds of acres of development, yet it has not prepared a “big picture view” of the multiple impacts to reefs, water resources, cultural sites , traffic or scenic views, We the undersigned residents and visitors care about this special place. Please require a full Environmental Impact Statement for the 47 acres of land proposed for 158 units and the surrounding entitled Makena Resort lands. It is what the law requires. Mahalo.

The Urban Design Review Board (UDRB) is not the deciding entity on whether the project will have to do a more comprehensive EIS or if an EA will be adequate. The UDRB advises the Planning Commission.
HOWEVER, the UDRB DOES have the authority to comment/advise on: Building design (does it minimally impact neighboring properties and the public?), View planes (especially view access to the ocean) and any Special Management or Coastal Zone issues.
Click here to view the complete checklist that the UDRB uses when reviewing SMA permit applications.

Here are some points to consider when sharing your manaʻo with the UDRB on March 1st or when submitting written testimony to planning@co.maui.hi.us:

Oh Say CAN You SEE?

Why the 47-Acre Makena Project Will Be More Than an Eyesore

* Public views WILL be affected by the project and its large, densely clustered tall buildings. Ask the UDRB to recommend an “alternative project design” be included in a FULL EIS!

* The area is a VERY culturally important and historic area that needs to be protected and the proposed plan will destroy a majority of the sites (whether discovered or yet-to-be-uncovered), including traditional mauka-makai access and historic roads our kūpuna used. The only areas that will be saved are those that are landscape features; NOT places where cultural practices can continue. There are possibly many more sites that CAN be uncovered, given the technology we have now.

* The Traffic Impact Analysis for the Draft EA only assesses three intersections adjacent to the project, and does not address the REAL traffic/parking impacts of this project on EVERYONE who currently uses Makena Landing/Maluaka Beach, is trying to get to Big Beach, driving to La Perouse, etc. More parking needs to be made available at the Makena Landing area FOR THE PUBLIC.

* REMIND THE UDRB THAT DOZENS OF PEOPLE TOOK OFF OF WORK TO ASK THE PLANNING COMMISSION NOT TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT! ASK FOR NOTHING LESS THAN A FULL NEW EIS!

Makena Resort has been under new ownership since the 2010 bankruptcy of the Dowling partnership. The new owners (ATC Makena) have partnered with Discovery Land, a high end resort developer, to gain permits to close the Makena Resort Hotel and repurpose it into a “members only” spa and resort condos (2014).

The partnership and Discovery Lands are now proposing to continue the “members only theme” and create an exclusive resort neighborhood of around 150 luxury units and a number of commercial units on 47 acres directly across from Makena Landing and Makena Bay.

The proposed project map shows 26 “custom estates” , 20 “canoe cottages” around a pool and clubhouse, 10 single family Transient Vacation Rental units and 14 condo buildings with a total of 86 units in 6 to 8 unit clusters on the steep hillside site.

Previous proposals by Dowling company were for around 40 individual estates on one acre lots on the same land.

Maui Tomorrow is part of a community advisory process with Makena Resort. Maui Tomorrow is concerned about drainage, cultural site and water quality impacts; potable water supply; traffic impacts and loss of the iconic Makena-Ulupalakua Road.

Invasive mangrove and thorny non-native palm trees will not be impacting cultural sites or taking over the forest area behind Oneloa Beach thanks to the efforts of volunteers who showed up to “malama Oneloa” (Big Beach) in Makena State park.

Volunteers remove invasive mangrove and hundreds of seed pods before they can take over the forested area mauka of Oneloa Beach.

Mahalo to hardworking volunteers Joseph Allbright, Keith and Charlene Echeverri and Theresa Jensen, all of Kihei. The project was organized by Save Makena, a project of Maui Tomorrow, in cooperation with DLNR and state park staff. If you would like to volunteer for future Malama Oneloa projects email: laluz@maui.net.

Thorny, invasive palms are cleared to help protect area around cultural sites.

Save Makena.org, a project of Maui Tomorrow Foundation, invites visitors and community members to help care for Oneloa (“Big Beach”), at Makena State Park on Saturday, May 18, 2013. The Malama Oneloa morning cleanup will meet at the park’s second entrance parking at 9am.

Volunteers will remove alien plants and clean the beach and wooded areas around a designated area of the park, working in coordination with the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of State Parks. Cleanup supplies will be provided with volunteers asked to bring work gloves; cold water and watermelon will be served. Save Makena.org provides a voice for citizens coming together to protect and take care of Makena State Park and the lands of Honua’ula. For further information or to volunteer, please call 214-0147

What’s happening with nearly 1800 acres formerly owned by the Morgan Stanley, Dowling and Goodfellow partnership? New owners took charge of the former Maui Prince Hotel and Makena Golf course at the end of August 2010. ATC Makena purchased the property for approximately $190 million, a fraction of the $575 million paid for the same property in 2007. Continue reading →

Sold August 2010

Makena Resort: New Owners or the Same Creditors?

UPDATE: Makena Resort. What’s happing with nearly 1800 acres formerly owned by the Everett Dowling partnership? A new partnership took charge of the former Maui Prince Hotel and Makena Golf Course at the end of August 2010. Comprised mostly of former investors in the project, the new owner’s Trustee, Wells Fargo Bank, purchased the property at foreclosure auction for $95 million in July of last year. This was a fraction of the $575 million price paid by Maui developer Everett Dowling and Morgan Stanley for the same property in 2007

Accounts claim the Dowling partnership invested at least another $100 million in plans and projects before their investment group failed to keep up the payments on a $192.5 million first mortgage last year.

The new owners include local developer Stanford Carr who has been part of both housing and resort development statewide, as well as Trinity investments, headed by local hotel developer Charles Sweeney. New York investment group, AREA Property Partners (formerly Apollo Real Estate Advisors), who specialize in distressed properties, is the third named partner in the new joint venture.

Both AREA and Trinity were investors in the former Dowling partnership and appeared to be waiting in the wings to snap up the property once foreclosure proceedings began. They currently own the Kahala hotel and Resort on O’ahu and formerly owned the Fairmont Kealani. In Maui.

The new owners have already announced that they find many of the 40 rezoning conditions that are attached to the project’s rezoning approvals too expensive and will try to get them changed.